Warlord:Race
Which races make good Warlords? Bonuses to Strength, Intellgience, or Charisma are key, but Constitution is valued as well. Especially at low-levels, a warlord has many powers with Effects that don't require him to hit, and so racial features and powers can frequently compensate for a missing Strength bonus. PHB Races Dragonborn: +2 Strength, +2 Charisma. With a bonus to all warlords' primary ability score and a bonus to most warlords' secondary ability score, dragonborn are a natural fit for the class. Dragonborn make great Inspilords and Bravelords in particular, but bring a very useful Dragon Breath and a racial incentive towards Constitution that helps any melee build. Recommended Ability Score Distribution: 18, 12, 12, 10, 8, 18 for any Charisma-based warlord or 18, 16, 12, 10, 8, 14 for a durable Bravelord. Dwarves: +2 Con, +2 Wis. Despite the PHB's picture, dwarves make only mediocre warlords for most builds as they lack a bonus to any primary or secondary ability score. You will get much more mileage out of a dwarven warlord if you plan on dabbling in the defender role, and their extra resilience makes them a decent Bravelord. Recommended ability score distributions: 16, 14, 8, 16, 14, 10 for INT builds, or 16, 14, 12, 10, 10, 16 for CHA builds. Eladrin: +2 Int, +2 Dex. Eladrin are perhaps the strongest choice for a Taclord in the game, as they have much stronger racial feat support than do the genasi. Charisma-based warlord builds have little in the eladrin to look forward to, save perhaps an easier qualification for heavy blade feats. Warlord's, who frequently demand to be in the right place at the right time, value Fey Step quite highly. Recommend Ability Score Distribution: 16, 12, 12, 18, 8, 12 for Taclords. Elves: +2 Dex, +2 Wis. Similar to dwarves, elves lack any ability scores that most warlords care about. Unlike dwarves, elves don't have the enhanced durablity to make them a reasonable choice anyway. Speed 7 and Elven Accuracy are, as usual, quite powerful, but may not be enough to compensate. Recommended Ability Score Distribution: 16, 13, 12, 14, 8, 14 for Resourcelords. Half-elves: +2 Con, +2 Cha. Durable and charismatic, half-elves are a promising choice for any Charisma-based warlord. Dilettante can either pick up a Charisma-based ranged attack, or Righteous Brand from the cleric. Recommended Ability Score Distribution: 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 18 for InspiLord. Halflings: +2 Dex, +2 Cha. Halflings make for an off-beat but potentially strong Charisma-based warlord. Halflings are mobile and have surprisingly high defenses most of the time, which is valuable for the warlord. With their dexterity, you may qualify for feats you wouldn't normally, driving up your ability to deliver and resist attacks of opportunity. However, halfling's will struggle to carry both a decent weapon and a shield. Consider halflings for your reckless, two-handed weapon Bravelords if you can stomach the comic side-effects. Recommended Ability Score Distribution: 16, 12, 14, 10, 8, 18. Humans: +2 Any. The human's extra at-will is more useful for the warlord than it is for many classes, and their extra feat can greatly increase the warlord's durability. Don't automatically increase Strength - a human Taclord with Strength 16 and Intelligence 18 is more than viable. Tieflings: +2 Int, +2 Cha. Dragonborn were built for Bravelords, and tieflings for Resourcelords. You should (as usual for a melee-oriented tiefling) strongly consider picking up a Flaming weapon and Hellfire Blood, giving you the punch of an 18 Strength. Recommended Ability Score Distribution: 16, 13, 10, 16, 8, 16 for Resourcelords. Other Races NOTE: With Martial Power, all the PHB races have recieved a lot of racial feat support that MM-only races will lack. This generally decreases their value as a warlord. Bugbear:+2 Str, +2 Dex. The Strength bonus means warlords should not rule out bugbears out of hand, but the rest of the race focuses on dealing damage, which is generally not your focus. As has been mentioned before, the Dexterity is sometimes helpful and sometimes not. Bravelords who stay away from Charisma-based powers may find this race to be an interesting option. Doppelganger: +2 Int, +2 Cha. Similar to tieflings, but without the racial feat support. If you've got intrigue going on in your game, this race surges in value, especially as a Resourcelord with a slew of useful skills. Drow: +2 Dex, +2 Cha. Bland analysis. Dexterity sometimes useful, Charisma very frequently useful. Racial powers are objectively strong, but somewhat less so on a warlord who cares more about granting his allies benefits then getting them for himself. Genasi: +2 Str, +2 Int. A powerful choice for any warlord, as the Strength is useful and the racial powers suit to your personal flavor. Especially powerful for a Taclord, as this is a way to buy an 18 Str and an 18 Int. Earthsoul and Watersoul are the default choices, though any of the manifestations may have perks. Githyanki: +2 Con, +2 Int. A good choice for Taclords, though other types of warlords will regret having neither Strength nor Charisma. Telekentic Leap is in flavor for a warlord, as it moves allies around on your turn. Consider combining with Knight's Move for an interesting build. Githzerai: +2 Dex, +2 Wis. Not super-useful racial abilities. To borrow a simple quote, "Yuck." Gnolls: +2 Dex, +2 Con. Durable and quick, a gnoll has racial features that enhance his ability to fight when a) bloodied, b) surrounded by friends, and c) charging. All these things point to a decent Bravelord, though stay away from this race for other builds. Gnomes: +2 Int, +2 Cha. Gnomish offense lags far behind that of Tieflings, because of their small size and lack of Hellfire Blood. However, with their mobility and ability modifiers, they have potential to make a mobile Resourcelord regardless. Goblins: +2 Dex, +2 Cha. I cannot in good faith recommend this class over the halfling for any warlord application. Hobgoblins: +2 Con, +2 Cha. A bonus to initiative and the encounter power saving throw are both tremendously useful when stapled to a leader. Your ability scores are solid for any Charisma-based build. Even the skill bonuses are on warlord skills. A solid, if not flashy, choice. Kobolds: +2 Dex, +2 Con. Sorry kobolds. Much as they're a better PC race than ever before, a kobold simply brings nothing to the table for a warlord and comes with the stigma of using small weapons. Even Shifty is less useful then normal on a character with Wolf Pack Tactics. Minotaur: +2 Str, +2 Con. There exists a Bravelord build that doesn't care about either its Intelligence or Charisma, and a Minotaur, now with Dragon Magazine support, is the perfect choice for that build. Orc: +2 Str, +2 Con. Bonus to primary ability score plus durabiltiy has been a recipe for success in many of the descriptions so far. The Orc's fondness for charging and capacity for self-healing makes Bravelord the optimal choice, but "makes a good Bravelord" is a a diagnosis with a lot of competition. Shadar-Kai: +2 Dex, +2 Int. Shadar-Kai are to Eladrin as Goblins are to Halflings. They make similar, but strictly inferior, warlords. Especially without racial feat support that Martial Power provides the eladrin with. Shifter, Longtooth: +2 Str, +2 Wis. If you're considering using a polearm, you could do worse than be a longtooth shifter. You'll likely feel pushed towards Taclord in that case, to get some use out of your Wisdom ability score (Will defense). Shifter, Razorclaw: +2 Dex, +2 Wis. As far as warlords are concerned, look to their longtooth cousins instead. Warforged:: +2 Str, +2 Con. With a bonus to your primary ability score and incredible heaps of durability, a warforged can make an excellent warlord of nearly any flavor.